The present invention is related to unique Ground Support Equipment (GSE) and, in particular, to an integral hoist and bomb rack assembly which eliminates the need for a separate hoist or jack assembly for transporting a bomb or missile onto a bomb or missile rack fixedly attached to the aircraft.
Currently, stores, i.e. bombs and missiles, must be transported into position for maintaining respective bomb or missile racks by known lifting devices such as the USN Single Hoist Ordinance Loading System (SHOLS), the USAF MJ-1 Jammer, and a USMS loader. These lifting systems are very large, heavy, logistically difficult to manage, and must accompany flight squadrons to deployment locations in order to be available to load weapons onto the aircraft bomb and/or missile racks. In each of these conventional loading systems, the stores or missiles are either hoisted into engagement with the bomb rack by a separate hoist assembly or raised into position by a jack assembly moved beneath the rack. The hoist can be mounted in the aircraft or be removed after loading the weapons. If a separate hoist is employed, it must be available wherever the deployed aircraft is armed.
A further drawback of conventional loading systems is the inability to carry a large variety of stores as may be required. As will be seen, the present invention provides a combined loading and rack assembly which can be employed regardless of variations in size and shape of the munitions, provided only that the rack can be attached to the store before lifting the store into the bomb bay.
Conventional ground support equipment used to support advanced internal weapon carriages may require the overall aircraft size to be unnecessarily large to accommodate clearances for the loading systems. In effect, the bomb hoist equipment becomes one of the design criteria for the aircraft and can unduly limit aircraft performance.
What is clearly needed is a simplified hoist and rack assembly for lifting and securing the stores or missiles within a bomb bay or beneath wing pylons of a military aircraft. As will become evident, the present invention provides a unique hoist and rack assembly constructed as an integral unit which fulfills these needs without requiring a large, cumbersome separate hoist or jack assembly as required in existing GSE.